The City Verus The Burbs

[Lady Day]

Ive lived in a neighborhood, a metropolis, and a citay.

The citay, I love being in the microcosm.
Where else can I get expresso every 20 ft?

LD

 

[Novella]

I love cities. I like the feeling of being alone amid hundreds or thousands of others I don't know. It's like being alone without ever really being alone. Only thing I don't like about cities is the traffic. I don't mind taking public transportation, but nothing beats having a car and being able to go wherever you want exactly when you want to.

Suburbs aren't bad, I grew up in them. But there's just something about the minivan culture that I get tired of.

 

[carebear]

The citay, I love being in the microcosm.
Where else can I get expresso every 20 ft?

LD

Umm, anywhere in the Pacific Northwest?

Besides the usual storefronts, up here every corner and parking lot has a little drive up stand, you don't even have to brave the cold. With the competition between the top flight local importers and roasters it's better coffee than most other places I've been. Kaladi even offers a "barrista college" which is almost a prerequisite to getting a job at an established stand.

Great espresso and big cities are not synonymous.

 

[Paisley]

I grew up in the suburban boonies and felt bored and stranded. No bus service, nothing important within walking distance, and I didn't have a car. There was one little park in the entire neighborhood, and it was frequented by teenage boys. There was no place for a kid to meander around and explore.

Technically, I live in the suburbs (old Englewood), but of a very different kind. The bus to the city (downtown Denver) is a few blocks away. Going the other direction, the library concert hall are a short drive away (the bus goes there, too). Within walking distance of my house, there is the post office, video store, grocery store, auto mechanic, tailor, and two outstanding restaurants. It's the best of both worlds: it's quieter than the city and I have a small yard, but it's close to everything I need and want. In fact, I recently spent almost two weeks without a car and only had to catch a few rides.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Make mine as isolated from people as possible and i'm happy. I can't stand the city, i REALLY can't stand suburbs - all those modern houses and nuclear NIMBY families with too many cars. YUKKK.

Since i'm forced to choose between the two i choose the city, where noone cares what you do beneath your own roof, and people just leave you alone to get along with things without expectations of behaviour.

My ideal is an isolated cottage somewhere in the midst of fantastic scenery. Maybe somewhere like this:

bk

 

[olive bleu]

Now see.. that's what I'm talkin about:eusa_clap


Apparently, my family owns a piece of land in a cove, on the little bitty island where i grew up.I keep dreaming of building a cabin there.....of course all you loungers could come visit

 

[Fletch]

I've lived in small towns almost all my life. I grew up walking to a neighborhood school, have always walked or ridden a bike to my jobs, and have always lived within a mile of the center of town -- making it easy to walk to the store or the bank or the post office anytime I need to.

So I'm a big believer in village oriented, pedestrian oriented life -- and couldn't imagine ever living in some manufactured suburb-- or any kind of place where the only way to get to where you need to be is to drive a car

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap
I grew up in a "small city" where you were basically less than a mile from anywhere you really needed to go (school, library, grocery, downtown). We had neighborhoods, big old trees, modest sized lawns, buses. Still do, mostly.

I'm convinced living like that is at, or very close to, the foundation of a liberal democracy. You know your neighbors - often for decades - and respect for each other and your mutual way of life almost doesn't need to be taught.

Where I live now, people don't know one another so well because there's too much class distinction and too much residual morés from New York (which is 25 mi south). But it's green and wooded, it's walkable, and there's the train. All in all, not bad.

 

[Pilgrim]

I'm beyond the burbs, I think. I don't want to live in or adjacent to a major city.

I currently live in a university town of about 120,000 people. That's big enough for me. I grew up in a university town of 24,000 and I may move back there when I retire. But university towns do have a lot going on even when they're small towns.

I'm 60 miles north of Denver now, so it's plenty accessible when I want to go there..but I don't need to put up with it every day. My home town was 80 miles from Spokane, WA which then had a population of about 110,000 and now has 196,000. I could live there OK, and in fact I like Spokane and am considering it as a retirement spot.

To get me into a major city would require at least doubling my salary, and then adding perks - in other words, you'd REALLY have to make it worth my while. And even at that, it would not be my long-term residence.

Not long before moving to Colorado I had a job offer in Seattle. I really had to think that one over, because I love Seattle - but the job was right in the middle of downtown (Seattle University) and I absolutely could not see myself buying a home far enough out to afford and then commuting. Further, it would have been a pay raise, but not enough to cover the differential in housing cost. I turned it down.

 

[Fletch]

Good point about college towns. My hometown (Ames, IA) is one. In some ways they defeat the paradigm of city vs. country.

 

[Twitch]

I grew up in St. Louis and live in a city conected to others which adjoin L.A. I tried living in a smaller area of about 60,000 in the 1970s and it was just too quaint for me. There are too many things a smaller town doesn't have culturally like decent libraries, symphonies or even venues that are played my musicians of any national promenence. Forget all cultural museum facilities.

You are limited in services also. Too much of the "only game in town" atmosphere when you seek out someone to fix your appliances or electronics. You find one Chevrolet, Toyota or Ford dealer to buy your car from and return for service. If you own something more exotic forget finding competent mechanics or parts. With most consumer-needed parts for anything they have to come from somewhere else with the accompanying wait. Sigh!

There are some throwback areas that don't allow liquor served by the drink and even completely dry counties if that is any factor to your enjoyment. Your real estate doesn't appreciate in value and you're stuck with a choice of maybe 2 professional roofers if you need them and they're both independent as hell- as are most service companies that have a lock on their area of work.

The job market is the true killer. You find an area where there are like only 2 companies that are related to your line of work or expertice. You have dismal choices in income even so. They pay crap compared to what you're accustomed to. And you can't live on rustic scenery even when the cost of living is somewhat lower! Once you hit the realization that you can't find a comfortable position due to lack of a cometitive market you have to get the hell outta Dodge!

If you are thinking about retiring to some little scenic wonderland think again. Medical care facilities are more distant than you have in larger cities and less sophisticated in both equipment and expertice of professional care. You take it for granted when the firehouse with paramedics are 1/2 mile away and a decent hopsital is just 3 miles. You must realize that living ten miles from them is time that will kill you if you need medical attention.

Public transportation is almost nil. Things are just as spread out as in the city suburbs when you realize that the stores you need to patronize are not within walking distance as you imagined they were.

Lot of towns don't cotton to outsiders from the big city either. You might be subtly ostracized as the big city know it all. Folks whose families that have lived there for generations get set in their ways more than the changing attitudes of city dwellers. You will truly never get over your big city attitude when you apply your reasoning to a small town atmosphere.

Due to a lower tax base don't expect any urban improvements either. Roads and similar city services aren't kept up to the degree you're accustomed to. You might have have a septic tank instead of sewers and have to have a propane tank cause the gas lines don't go all over. Don't be shocked to not see sidewalks except in the city center. Get used to ditches running along roads.

If you were born and raised in a smaller area that's great since it works for you. You're one of them and fully accustomed to the pros and cons. Small town folks are the salt of the earth and most would be more neighborly than you are used to but when your spetic tank clogs and the only guy in town can't come out till "next week sometime" or the part for your car has to come from "a distribution center in another state" you will be frustrated as hell no matter how nice the scenery is.

Most smaller population areas work on Mayberry and Hooterville time and there is no rush to do things. That can be fine if you're lulled into a sedintary life of "mañana." But when you require goods and services the lack of competition and cultural offerings will debilitate you. Folks make a fair living and don't need to go out of their way to accomadate your timetable in an effort to make more money or outshine the limited competition.

Big city people can rarely move to a small town and not realize how disimilar it is and really be happy.

 

[Lady Day]

Umm, anywhere in the Pacific Northwest?

Besides the usual storefronts, up here every corner and parking lot has a little drive up stand, you don't even have to brave the cold. With the competition between the top flight local importers and roasters it's better coffee than most other places I've been. Kaladi even offers a "barrista college" which is almost a prerequisite to getting a job at an established stand.

Great espresso and big cities are not synonymous.

Well...I dont drive, and in this city you really dont need to unless you commute. So when I said every 20 feet, I meant it. And great expresso and any city is not synonymous. You just have a better chance at finding good stuff if there is more to sample.

LD

 

[Pilgrim]

I think that most people's answers in this thread will mirror their childhood. If you were a city kid, chances are you're a city adult. If not, then not.

W all acclimate to our surroundings, especially those we grow up in. There's generally a comfort level associated with that, even if the same characteristics would drive someone with different experience crazy.

As evidence, I offer Lubbock, TX. NO ONE would live there if they didn't naturally acclimate to desktop-flat terrain and constant wind.

 

[SGB]

None of the above....

I lived most of my adult life in the country on acreage, until moving to town 2 years ago. I hate town, hate having neighbors, miss the country life every day, but since we're here I'm now stuck. My wife loves where we live. We do have a custom built house on 1 acre, but it's still too close to everybody and everything for me.
I was visiting San Francisco last month and had 3 days to blow, I was bored the whole time. Stayed on Union Square, went to museums, art galleries (lousy art mostly), and went to some of my old stomping grounds. None of the neat places I used to visit in SF were the same or even still there, Union Street was nothing but restaurants. I used to know every alley and place to hang out in SF, not anymore. Too much time has passed.
Green Acres here I come........

SGB

 

["Doc" Devereux]

I think that most people's answers in this thread will mirror their childhood. If you were a city kid, chances are you're a city adult. If not, then not.

Glad you said 'most' there, Pilgrim. I grew up in a small town in the country, have lived in cities by choice for most of my adult life and after three years in the 'burbs am about to move much closer to town again. I like the anonymity, and being close to the heart of things. I'm also sick of interminable journies home at four in the morning.

 

[Paisley]

The high rise building where I work has its lobby decorated with lighted aspen trees, poinsettias and wire deer. That is enough wilderness for me.

 

[GateXC]

I grew up out in the countryside of NW Connecticut and went to Colgate Univ. in Central NY (total pop. of Hamilton, NY - 2500) but have been in NYC for the past 7 years and love every minute of it. The feeling that there is always something going on, the architecture, hop the subway or my vespa and be in a completely different type of neighborhood in 20 minutes. And actually, it may be counter-intuitive, but most neighborhoods in the city are as tightly knit as some small towns. It's a great feeling to get to know people up and down a block over the years. Plus everythign you could ever want is at your fingertips whether it be a pint of Ben & Jerrys at 3:30 am or the ability to go see La Traviata at the opera on a whim. Simply can't be beat.

But I'm also equally comfortable going home and being able to go for hikes in the woods, cross country sking in the winter, long runs past farms, etc.

I would never live the suburbs. Sprawl. Have to drive everywhere. No character. Strip Malls. Ugh. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather not live.

 

[Section10]

For the last two years I've been living on the outskirts of a small town and I like it.
The nearest city is Duluth MN about 130 miles and that's close enough for shopping a couple times a year. For many years we lived on a farm so far out in the woods the Jehovah Witnesses couldn't even find us. I had people drive out to my place and ask if they were still in the US.
Towns are easier. City water, city sewer, garbage pickup, blacktop roads. The county road to my farm had grass growing in the middle of it and when I turned the faucet on and no water came it was all my problem and believe me crawling down inside a 24" dia. dug well on a rope with knots spaced along it feels like being inside a shotgun.
I got reliable electric, snow plowing before 10 AM, no septic tank to clean out in February when it's -20 and a managable size lawn. We do miss raising chickens, though.

 

[Viola]

I've never lived anywhere but a city, and in fact only in one city. But I think I'd like to live in the country. That said, I think I'd miss restaurants and supermarkets and Home Depots (yes I have three and they're all slightly different).

 

[carebear]

I've never lived anywhere but a city, and in fact only in one city. But I think I'd like to live in the country. That said, I think I'd miss restaurants and supermarkets and Home Depots (yes I have three and they're all slightly different).

They have all those in rural areas, they're just further away.

 

[matei]

I vote for the city. I'd be bored outta me skull in the suburbs. I've lived there and didn't care for it.

I wouldn't want to live in the wilderness either. It is nice for a short period, just long enough to unwind... but after a few days I'm bored and I want to go back to the hustle & bustle of the city.